Television is widely used in modern society both as a source of information and as entertainment. Cable and satellite systems can supplement local over-the-air broadcasting to provide dozens or even hundreds of channels of programming. In addition to the programming, advertisements are also broadcast and can provide viewers with important information related to products and services of which viewers have a need.
Consequently, the viewer may frequently have a desire to capture a particular piece of information or program segment from a television broadcast. For example, when seeing a commercial for a particular product or service that the viewer wishes to purchase, the viewer may wish to capture important information from the commercial about that product or service. The viewer may want to capture a phone number, an e-mail address, a web-site address (URL), pricing information, location information, sale date and time information, etc., that is broadcast in the commercial.
Conventionally, the user has been required to quickly obtain writing materials in order to capture such information. For this reason, television commercials frequently repeat important information to better allow a user to obtain writing materials and note that information or remember it until it can be written down.
In addition to such textual information that can be written down by a viewer, viewers may also want to actually capture a segment of the audiovisual signal of the television broadcast. For example, the viewer may want to capture a highlight in a sporting event or a news announcement so that the video clip can be accessed later by the viewer to be shown to another person who would be interested. A student may want to extract a portion of an educational program.
At present, there a number of electronic devices that can be used to record broadcast television signals. These devices may be generally categorized as video cassette recorders (VCRs) and Personal Video (or Versatile) Recorders (PVRs).
A VCR uses a magnetic tape to allow the user to record incoming audiovisual programming while watching the same or a different channel. A VCR also allows the user to record broadcasts using a timer and a preprogrammed recording schedule so that programs can be recorded when the user is away and cannot watch the desired programming. Consequently, the VCR allows the user to capture programming that would otherwise be missed so that the programming can be watched at the user's convenience.
However, the VCR is designed to record entire programs. If the user happens to see a commercial containing important information that the user wishes to capture, unless the user has prepared the VCR beforehand so as to be ready to record, the VCR will likely not be ready to record and cannot be prepared or accessed quickly enough to record the commercial. Thus, the VCR is poorly adapted to meet the viewer's need to spontaneously record important information from television commercials.
The VCR is also poorly adapted to meet the viewer's need to spontaneously record small segments from programming that the viewer will want to access later. In this instance, the viewer can at least anticipate that a program will contain material he or she wishes to record. The viewer cannot so anticipate the content of television commercials. However, the user will then need to record entire programs to be sure of recording the material he or she wishes to preserve. If the entire program is not recorded, the user runs the risk of failing to quickly activate the VCR in time to capture the moment or segment of the programming desired. Once the entire program is recorded, the user must then fast forward and rewind through the entire program to find those segments he or she wishes to preserve.
The basic concept of the VCR has recently been extended to digital compression devices that provide even more features for managing the reception and recording of audiovisual programming. These products have a number of names such as personal television products, personal video recorders, video recording computers, personal television servers, etc., (referred to collectively as “personal video recorders” or PVRs hereafter). Current examples of personal video recorders include the TiVo® system made by TiVo, Inc. and the ReplayTV® system made by Reply Networks, Inc.
Personal video recorders replace the video cassette recording medium with a hard drive internal to the recorder. The personal video recorder is connected between a user's television set and that user's cable box, satellite receiver or antenna. The personal video recorder can control the channel tuned on the television, provide an interactive electronic program guide and record programming on a manual or timer-controlled basis. Additionally, the personal video recorder can buffer incoming audiovisual programming so that the viewer can pause a live television program or replay a portion of a live television program without missing any subsequent segment of the program, as long as the pause or replay does not exceed the capacity of the buffer.
In even more advanced features, the personal video recorder can be programmed to regularly record a user's favorite programs and then also record other programs of the same genre that the user may be interested in watching. Thus, the personal video recorder may help a user watch audiovisual programming that the user is interested in, but was not even aware of at the time it was broadcast.
Consequently, the PVR provides more flexibility in recording and capturing incoming audiovisual signals than is available with a VCR. However, the PVR is still prone to many of the same problems described above, such as the need to record an entire program to avoid missing important segments. Therefore, there is a need in the art for a method and system that allows a viewer of broadcast television programming to capture important information and/or video clips for later use.